Dear Generalissimo,
Your recent post on Facebook concerning the impoundment and fines levied against an individual you referred to as a ‘law abiding citizen’ of Oyo State caught our attention and because of the sensitivity of the matter, we would like to make some clarifications regarding our modus-operandi as enshrined in the Oyo State Road Traffic Management Authority Act 2009 so as not to mislead the general public into believing that the Authority erred or perpetrated any injustice on the matter.
First, we must thank you for bringing the matter forth and we encourage you to do same wherever and whenever you find any questionable conduct on the part of any of our men, officers or collaborators as OYRTMA under the leadership of Mogaji Akin Fagbemi PhD operates an open-door-policy that allows for immediate actions on public complaints, enquiries and requests.
On your allegations, we want you to know that our core mandate is to ensure effective flow of human and vehicular movement across the State as well as ensuring safety of road users. The State Government has empowered the Authority to remove any object acting as obstruction to the free flow of traffic or inimical to the safety and well-being of road users.
You must note that the impounded vehicle belonging to the ‘law abiding citizen’ constituted obstruction on the road as at the time it was evacuated and portends danger to incoming vehicles who might be unsuspecting that such object could be stationery at such point, hence, the need for its evacuation by our men in accordance with section 16 of the above-mentioned Act of the Oyo State parliament.
On the fines charged, the 15,000.00 is a statutorily designated fee for impounded vehicles causing obstructions on the road while the 10,000.00 is service charges due to the registered private towing firm engaged by the Authority in towing impounded vehicles at locations where the Authority’s towing vans were not immediately available, to our designated offices across the State.
There is no illegality in this as the Law establishing the Authority empowers it in Section 16 to enter into agreement(s) with private firms or individuals that could legally assist in actualizing the core mandate of ensuring safety on the roads and maintaining free flow of traffic. This is same as in the case of LASTMA in Lagos, TRACE in Ogun, KAROTA in Kano State etc. as well as oversees thus is in tandem with global best practices in ensuring effective road traffic management.
You may wish to know that in the absence of this arrangement, large cities such as Ibadan would require government to purchase at least 50 towing vans for effective traffic management and prior the commencement of the Governor Seyi Makinde’s administration, OYRTMA had only one functional towing truck which has now been increased to seven through direct purchase of new ones and rejuvenation of moribund ones by the State Government under His excellency, the Executive Governor. In addition, the authority had explored provisions of its establishing Act to engage the services of more private towing firms to meet up the traffic demand of the State.
Also, one may ask if you timed the duration the broke-down vehicle spent at the spot for you to have ascertained it was less than 10minutes while for your information, it only takes a few micro-seconds for crashes involving multiple casualties to occur claiming the lives of innocent road users and bread-winners of different families.
Suffice to mention is the unfortunate crash of a gas tanker belonging to Gasland limited at the Bode Area of Ibadan metropolis that claimed several lives and left many gravely injured.
You would recall that after several attempts to remove the heavy tanker from the incident scene through the use of our towing vans proved abortive, we had to engage the services of two private crane owners from Ogun State to successfully remove the vehicle only after 14hours of non-stop efforts at a cost of almost One million Naira.
Most of the casualties of this crash were those indiscriminately parked along the road who if we had impounded their vehicles just an hour earlier would also have claimed to have parked only for 10minutes as you have claimed in your case.
In addition to this, OYRTMA under the present administration of Governor Seyi Makinde has executed her roles with unprecedented human face including payment of hospital bills for accident victims in critical conditions to safe their lives in the interim before contacting their families. On many occasions, people had petitioned media houses that the Authority is too lenient with offenders with some individuals going as far as reporting on live programs on FM stations to which ace broadcasters whom you tagged in your post, Isaac Mayor Brown could bear witness as well as Olalomi Amole, Komolafe Olaiya among others.
Thus, rather than creating unnecessary diversions and politicizing issues bothering on road safety, it is important you identify with the giant strides of the Authority which has culminated in the massive applause accorded the State by multi-national organizations and other States through efficient service delivery in traffic management and rescue operations.
It would be highly unfair if you isolate this case because it affects you or your friends and still come back to complain bitterly about the ‘non-responsiveness’ of the Oyo State Government in handling the growing traffic challenge being experienced across Ibadan, the State capital. What is good for the goose should also be good for the gander. You can not praise LASTMA for being an effective organization in Lagos for enacting the State’s traffic laws and then blame and blackmail OYRTMA for doing similar jobs, even with more leniency but same intent, in Oyo State.
However, as aforementioned, rather than dragging the Governor into these mundane issues while there exists more pressing ones, Management of the Authority operates an open-door-policy and has graciously approved we invite you to our office at the State Secretariat for any enquiries or further clarifications you might seek.
Whilst thanking you for escalating the issue for others to learn from, the Authority assures of its will to continue to explore every legal way to ensure sanity on our roads and protect the lives and properties of the good people of the State for we believe that vigilance of everyone means safety for all and negligence of anyone portends danger to all.
Find attached pictorial evidences of severe road crashes occasioned by indiscriminate parking of vehicles along road corridors ‘just for 10minutes’, to borrow your words.
We thank you.
